


All They See Is Treason

by ElphieBLW



Series: Hollow Heroes [1]
Category: Big Hero 6 (2014)
Genre: Big Hero 6 Being Badass, Claustrophobia, Fires, Gen, Hiro's a Magnet for Trouble, I'm so mean to Hiro, Lame Code Names, Overprotective Nerd Squad, Sergeant Gerson rocks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-12
Updated: 2016-06-12
Packaged: 2018-07-14 13:28:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,478
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7173761
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElphieBLW/pseuds/ElphieBLW
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>All their enemies had seemed to learn, very early on, that attacking the youngest, smallest member of Big Hero 6 would cause the others to panic and become either too distracted to fight back or super focused to try to keep Hiro safe. It was a fifty-fifty shot of either taking Big Hero 6 down hard or being taken out by them.</p>
<p>And Hiro always came out of it worse for wear.</p>
            </blockquote>





	All They See Is Treason

**Author's Note:**

> This one’s connected to a story that’s in the works. The dialogue’s mostly done, so I wanted to get this little one-shot prequel up before that one starts to post.
> 
> Takes place about five or six months after the movie. Big Hero 6 is fairly well-established in San Fransokyo, but no one knows who they are. This all stemmed from two things. One, the in-works story mentioned earlier, and two, the thought that having one member of the team being so much smaller than the rest was probably like a neon sign for villains saying “Prime target, right here!”
> 
> Um, so, yeah, enjoy.

**_Chairs thrown and tables toppled, Hands armed with broken bottles_ **

It was just another normal day for the six teens that made up the local vigilante team.

…Okay, maybe that wasn’t such a normal sentence, but it was true.

Big Hero 6, unbeknownst to the rest of San Fransokyo, was actually a group of SFIT students.  The yellow teammate, widely known as “Comet” for her speed, was Leiko “Gogo Tomago” Tanaka.  The pink, “Heels”, was Aiko “Honey Lemon” Miyazaki.  The green, “Blade”, was Damon “Wasabi” No-Ginger.  The blue kaiju monster commonly referred to as “Dragon” was Fred Lee.  The last two, the purple and red members, were known to be a duo, rarely parting during battle.  As such, the two had been named “Brains” and “Brawns”.  These last two were actually Hiro Hamada and his older brother’s healthcare robot, Baymax.

Of course, no one knew this, and no one  _could_  know this, or the group would probably be 1) arrested for vigilantism and 2) attacked at home by the few enemies they’d made.

Though, admittedly, their enemies already had decent plans for how to defeat them.

In the past six months that they’d been working as city heroes, all the members of Big Hero 6 had had their fair share of injuries.  Gogo was prone to twisted ankles and wrists from getting a bit  _too_  fast on her magna-skates.  Honey got scrapes and bruises from getting close enough to fight hand-to-hand rather than with her chem bombs.  Wasabi had had his blades turned on him once or twice before Hiro came up with a failsafe to shut the lasers off.  Fred had, in true Fred fashion, managed to burn himself on his flamethrower and sprain his ankles from landing poorly after his “super jumps”.  Baymax usually just had to deal with battery shortages or the occasional slight tear in his vinyl exterior (still fixed, as he originally did, with tape).

But Hiro seemed to get the brunt of it all.  In the course of just six months, he’d been kidnapped, had broken bones, been knocked out several times, had to get stitches for various lacerations, and just generally kept Baymax very busy caring for his health.

All their enemies, all the people who decided to commit crime in San Fransokyo, had seemed to learn,  _very_  early on, that attacking the youngest, smallest member of Big Hero 6 would cause the others to panic and become either too distracted to fight back or super focused to try to keep Hiro safe.  It was a fifty-fifty shot of either taking Big Hero 6 down  _hard_  or being taken out by them.

And Hiro usually came out of it worse for wear.

**_Standing no chance to win but, We’re not running, we’re not running_ **

“Gogo, any chance you’ve got an extra disk I can borrow?!”

_“Uh, y’only made me four, dork.  …Wait, what’s the problem?”_

“Well….”

_BOOM!_

_“…Please tell me that wasn’t near you.”_

“ _Well_ ….”

_“ **Hiro** ….”_

“I wouldn’t say  _near_ ….”

_“Hiro, I will **kick**  your  **ass**  if you’re over there!”_

“Hiro has told me to inform you that we are not about to crash into a burning, half-destroyed building.”

“Dammit, Baymax!”

_“HAMADA, YOUR ASS IS GRASS!”_

_Click_

**_There’s a point I think we’re missing, It’s in the air we raise our fists in_ **

Hiro was, admittedly, a bit prone to accidents.  And being a target for bullies and villains alike.  And not thinking straight when in the middle of a battle or when adrenaline was running high.  Case and point, he was now falling into a recently-exploded building.  Luckily with Baymax, unluckily without working suits.  Just before the bomb went off, Baymax’s wings had been disabled (okay, so Hiro didn’t realize just how badly ice can screw with wings) and they’d begun to fall.  So, he tried to find a way to fix it, knowing Gogo was the closest and that he could chip at the ice with the disk.

Unfortunately, she did not take this well.

After she disconnected her comm, Hiro found himself (and Baymax, thank Kami for the robot’s ability to soften falls) crashing through the top floor of the building, along with floors ten to four, finally landing on floor three.  Hiro shook himself off, trying to calm his racing heart, then turned to check on Baymax.  “Hey, you good?  Run an internal scan.”

There was a slight pause, then a monotone, “I have several rips in my soft, huggable exterior.”

Hiro tried to stifle his laughter, reminding himself again to update Baymax’s speech database so he’d use the much more efficient ‘vinyl’ instead, then asked, pushing himself up, “Any other issues?”

Again, Baymax paused before his reply.  “That appears to be it, though you seem to have a slightly—”

“Owww!”

“—fractured ankle.”

The teen shot a glare at his robot from where he was now leaning against a desk to keep weight off his left foot.  “Ya  _think?_ ”

Baymax’s head tilted to one side.  “I scanned you.  I do not think, I know.”

With a roll of his eyes, the boy muttered, “Expression, Baymax.   _Sarcasm_.  Kami, I should make you a chip for that….”

“There is no room for another chip, between my healthcare, fighting, cooking, and laboratory chips.”

“Then remind me to pair those down.”

“Reminder set.”

_“HIRO HAMADA, IF I HAVE TO CARRY YOUR ASS BACK TO THE CAFÉ, I SWEAR TO GOD—!”_

The sudden yell startled Hiro, causing him to stumble forward onto his bad foot, which immediately gave out under him.  “Owwww,” he moaned, trying to sit up again.

Gogo stormed in, taking a quick glance around for blood before locking eyes with the teen.  “Brat, what the hell’d you do?!”  There was a slight pause, then she raised a hand towards her comm.  “Got him, guys, checking them both now.”

Hiro rolled his eyes as she stomped over to squat beside him.  “Baymax already did his—”

“And you’ve been known to cover up any injuries and try to prevent Baymax from telling us, so I’m getting a second opinion.”

The teen’s nose wrinkled in annoyance, but he let her do some quick triage.  Sure enough, she confirmed that his ankle was fractured and turned to Baymax for ideas on making a splint.

“We will need something straight and sturdy, along with belts or ties,” the robot was saying.  Gogo started hunting around for materials, even as Baymax continued, “I would advise moving to a safer place before—”

“No time,” both humans bit out, Gogo annoyed and Hiro starting to really feel the fracture.  The fire from the explosion was beginning to spread.  The elder finally found a few flat metal pieces and laid them against Hiro’s ankle, demanding gauze from the robot and wrapping everything up.

She stood up, hands on hips, and nodded after studying the teen once more.  “Alright, that’s you done.  Now, what’s up with the walking marshmallow?”

“Vinyl tears,” Hiro cut over Baymax’s long-winded attempt.  The robot blinked at him, but nodded.  “I’ll fix it when we get back.”

There was a loud echo from a floor above them, followed closely by a rather unnerving creaking noise.

“Ah, wh—which way out?” Hiro asked, voice a bit shaky.  It didn’t take a genius to realize that the combination of the explosion, the fire, and the impending collapse of the building they were in was causing Hiro to flashback to the showcase.

Crap.

Gogo spun for a moment, taking in the entire floor as fast as possible, before pointing.  “Stairs are that way.  C’mon.”  She snatched the teen’s arm, slinging it over her shoulder to help him along, Baymax trailing behind, obviously concerned and wishing the height difference didn’t make it so hard to help.

Another echo, this time recognizable as a thud, sounded, even closer than before.

Wide-eyed, Hiro and Gogo shared a look.  “Don’t tell me…” Gogo began.

“Uh, I  _may_  have been following our villain of the week before the explosion,” Hiro answered.  “And he  _may_  have wound up somewhere near here….”

“Dammit, kid, you’re gonna give us all heart attacks one of these days,” the elder grumbled.  “And  _no_ , Baymax, I do  _not_  need a defibrillator.”

The robot slowly lowered his glowing hands from where he’d started to raise them.

**_In the smiles we cast each other, My sister, my brother_ **

Honey Lemon, Wasabi, and Fred were outside the building, still trying to find the last few bombs while the police began to rope off the area, when the explosion went off.  All three spun towards the noise, eyes widening when they spotted the purple, red, and yellow streaks arcing towards the destroyed building.

“…Okay,” Wasabi mumbled, “ten bucks says Hiro’s got something to do with that.”

“No duh,” Fred replied.  “I’m not forking anything over on such a stupid bet.”

“Ten bucks says Gogo’s too worried to kick Hiro’s butt for getting in trouble,” the physicist wagered instead.

“That one I’ll take!”

“Bigger picture, guys,” Honey cut in.  She pointed at the burning building.  “The structure’s unstable, and over a fault line.  Given this guy’s placed his bombs very strategically….”

“…You don’t think…?”

“I do.”

“Damn….”

Fred glanced between the two, finally just groaning and throwing his arms in the air.  “Fill in us non-geniuses, here!”

“Sorry,” both mumbled, in varying degrees of embarrassment.  Honey continued, “He’s trying to force an earthquake.”

“And since that building, and likely those around it, is now unsteady—”

“—they could collapse, and Hiro, Baymax, and Gogo are inside.”

**_About the time we gave up hoping, We’d ever find these locks still open_ **

The next rumble that came through the building nearly knocked Hiro and Gogo over.  Baymax steadied the two just in time, scanning both them and the structure they were in.  “It would appear the building is about to collapse,” Baymax stated.

“Yeah, no kidding,” Gogo grumbled.

“Bad time for an earthquake,” Hiro said with a wince, struggling to keep off his fractured, splinted ankle when the tremors kept coming.

“I doubt these are real earthquakes, kiddo.”

“You’d be right.”

All three spun to the new voice, finding the man they’d been chasing.  He stood among the flames, wearing a special suit to keep from getting burned, along with a helmet that kept the heroes from knowing what he looked like.

Hiro caught on to what he meant.  “You’re placing your bombs on fault lines!  You could level the city doing that!”

The man chuckled.  “That’s sort of the idea.”

“Yeah?  And what do you gain from that?” Gogo demanded.

They could tell from his tone that the man was smirking.  “Money, and lots of it.”

“You’re  _insane!_ ”

“Ah, but that’s what you lot specialize in, isn’t it?” the man shot back.  “You came into the spotlight for taking down Yokai, and you’ve only kept up with that record, shooting down robbers, killers, and the like.  You really shouldn’t be surprised any more by the things people will do to fulfill their goals.”

Another creak echoed around them, and a portion of the ceiling burned through, landing between Gogo and Hiro, forcing them apart.

The man seemed to lock his gaze on the younger.  “Time to take my own spot among your villains.”

**_Stumbling on stones unturned, The hurt we feel, we all have earned_ **

Hiro gaped at the man from his spot on the ground.  Without Gogo’s support, his bad leg gave out on him, leaving him trapped where he was until either Baymax or Gogo could come help.  But given the flames now between them, it’d take some time before they could get to him.

Even worse, the man was coming towards him.  “W—What do you want?!” Hiro spat, pulling himself back with his arms for each step forward the man took.

“I’d’ve thought that was obvious.”

Hiro had backed himself into a corner, and the man squatted in front of him.

“Leave him alone!” Gogo ordered, trying to find the best path through the flames and weakened floor.

The man was close enough now that Hiro could see through his mask.  He was rolling his eyes.  “That would be counter-productive.”

“To what?!” both human heroes demanded.

“To bringing down the Big Hero 6 once and for all.”

**_The lines we cross in search of change, But all they see is treason_ **

It took only a few minutes for Wasabi, Honey, and Fred to get to the front of the building and demand a sit rep from the police.

“The structure’s weakening at a rapid pace, too much so for us to really stop it,” one officer explained.  “We’ve got firemen trying to clear the flames, but the place is coming down, quick.”

“Sir, half our team is in there!” Honey exclaimed, Wasabi and Fred trying to keep her from accidentally saying any of their names.  Or deafening the police in her worry.

“I understand,” the officer attempted to calm her, “but we can’t allow anyone to enter until we know the building’s stab—”

And that was when the structure collapsed.

**_Although we have no obligation to stay alive_ **

A tremor shook all four of the people—well, three people and a robot—in the building.  Gogo and Baymax were knocked to the floor, Hiro winced when his arms gave out and his fractured ankle hit against the ground, but the man who’d planted the bombs appeared almost unaffected.  In fact, he lunged forward with the shaking and snatched Hiro by the shoulder, pulling him up to a stand.  Or, a lean, really, as the young teen still couldn’t balance on his own.

“ _Let him go!_ ” Gogo growled across the room as she struggled to her feet.

The man chuckled, tugging Hiro closer.  “I don’t think so, Princess.”  His grip tightened on Hiro’s arm, causing the teen to hiss in pain, stumbling a bit as he was thrown more off-balance.  “See, I need this kid here, and you aren’t gonna distract me any more.”

“The hell’s that supposed to—?”

_BOOM!_

If it weren’t for the man’s hold on his arm, Hiro likely would’ve been thrown by the explosion, small though it was, due to how close it struck.  The floor between them and Gogo and Baymax was gone.

The two heroes were nowhere to be seen.

**_On broken backs we beg for mercy, we will survive_ **

Hiro was given no time to panic, to mourn, to process what had just happened.  His eyes were still wide, locked on the spot where the floor, his  _friends_  had been.  “ _No_ ,” he breathed.

The man pulled him along, and he fumbled after, trying and failing to get his feet under him or keep weight off his fractured—likely closer to broken, now—ankle.

It was the pain that jolted him back to the present.  “L—Let go!” he demanded.

The man didn’t even break his stride.  “Can’t.”

“Why the hell not?!”

“Because I’ve got a lot of money riding on being able to keep you out of this.”

If Hiro had been able to pause and gape at that, he would’ve.  Sadly, he simply had to keep tripping after the man.  “What?!  The hell I’ll stay out of—!”

The man spun, tugging Hiro forward to be nose-to-nose, snarling, “You aren’t exactly gonna have a choice, kid.”

Hiro winced at the firm grip, feeling bruises forming all along his arm from the manhandling.  “P—Please, just—just let me go.”

“Tch.”  The man released Hiro, watching him stumble and collapse to the wavering, half-burnt floor.  “You’re even more pathetic than they said.  Didn’t anyone ever teach you begging’s a sign of weakness?”

The teen flinched back, but argued, “Knowing limits is a strength, not a—”

“It’s a  _weakness_ , kid.  You’re  _weak_.  You’re just dragging those other so-called ‘heroes’ down, aren’t you?”  The man leaned forward, a sneer breaking across what little Hiro could see of his face.  “And I bet your  _buddies_  know it.  Just humoring you, aren’t they?”

“They are  _not!_ ”

“Then  _prove it!_ ”

“ _I will!_ ” Hiro spat back, defiance sparking in his eyes.

The man’s smirk grew, and he leaned in close to hiss, “Then save yourself for once.”

And Hiro was shoved backwards, suddenly surrounded by darkness as a lock clicked into place.

**_Break out!  I won’t be left here, Behind closed doors_ **

Gogo coughed as she stumbled to her feet, bracing against a wall.  There was too much dust to see, though she certainly tried, blinking and squinting through the rubble.  “Baymax?  Hiro?!” she called, interrupting herself every few moments to cough some more.

“I am here,” the bot’s monotone voice replied.  He was staggering, deflated entirely in an arm and leg from tears, and his head wobbled more than usual.  One finger on his intact arm rose.  “Hiro does not seem to be on this floor.”

“Then where—?”

A thunderous booming above them interrupted Gogo, and they both ducked as more debris fell from the floor above them.

“It is inadvisable to remain in this building.”

“Gee, ya  _think?!_ ” Gogo snapped back.  Still, she quickly spotted an open window and noticed the drop was safe in their gear.  “C’mon, I found our exit.  Hiro’s probably outside already.”  She lead the way over to the window, but Baymax had her step back for him to go first to assure her safety.  She complied, rolling her eyes, as the robot tottered over the edge and bounced a few times upon landing.

Baymax glanced back up towards her.  “It is safe.”

She quickly leapt down, landing in a crouch and standing almost immediately.  “So… where’s Hiro, then?” she asked, looking around.

“ _Go—Comet!_ ”

She turned to the voice, barely seeing a flash of pink before Honey was suddenly grabbing at her, hugging her tight.

“ _Gracias a Dios_ , you’re okay!” the Latina murmured, still squeezing her smaller friend.  She finally pulled away, looking Gogo over for injuries before another thought came to mind.  “Where’s Hiro?  Wasn’t he with you?”

Gogo’s eyes went wide.  “He’s not with you?  He didn’t meet up with you guys?!”

“No,” Wasabi mumbled, brow furrowing.  “What’s going on, Gogo?”

“He—We—There was an explosion, the floor fell out from under us, but—but Hiro wasn’t with us after we fell.  We thought—I thought that he had already gotten out.”

“But then….”

They all turned towards the burning building, but only Fred was able to finish Honey’s sentence.  “He’s still in there.”

**_Bonfires burn like beacons, Guiding the lost and weakened_ **

Hiro winced, sitting up and rubbing at his head.  He couldn’t see anything around him; the room he was in was pitch black, so he went to stand.

“ _Owww!_ ” he hissed, once more holding his head, nursing the bump that was no doubt forming rapidly from that collision.  When he brought his arms back down, he attempted to feel out how big the room was, but the most he could manage was right angles at his elbows.  He felt like one of those street-performer mimes, locked in an invisible box.

But this box was real.  Solid walls, on all sides of him, and he couldn’t seem to find the door handle at all.  Even worse, he could still smell the smoke from the fires just outside.

His eyes widened.  Smoke.  Oh, god, there was smoke coming in and he didn’t have much room and was it getting harder to breathe?  It can’t be getting harder to breathe, it’s been barely a minute since he was locked in here, right?  So he’s probably fine, right, just—just panicking and he should really stop panicking but he couldn’t get his breathing regulated and he was gonna breathe in too much smoke and weren’t you supposed to get as low as possible with smoke or is that cold air no it had to be smoke smoke is warm and warm air rises and maybe it works for both?

Hiro tugged at his hair, squeezing his eyes shut and trying to shut up his stupid, panicky brain.  But it just wouldn’t stop.  For all the room he didn’t physically have, his thoughts were taking up  _way_  too much of it.

Oh, man, now he wasn’t even making sense with his  _rational_  thoughts.

He was  _so_  screwed….

**_Flames dance on crashing waves, Guiding ships who’ve gone astray_ **

“ _Ay, dios mio!_ ” Honey Lemon moaned as another small explosion rocked the building they were running towards.

“Less talking, more running!” Wasabi ordered, picking up speed just before they reached the police line.  Again.

And the same old officer came up to them.  Again.  “Please stay—Oh, for the love of—Not you guys again!”

“ _Move_ ,” Gogo barked, trying to push past.

The officer wouldn’t budge.  “I can’t let you go in there, it’s not—!”

“If the next word out of your mouth is ‘safe’, I’m gonna punch your stupid face in!”

“ _Comet!_ ” the other three yelped.

“You can’t  _threaten_  the  _police!_ ” Honey added, nearly shrieking in her panic.

Gogo rolled her eyes.  “The hell I can’t!”  She spun back to the officer, shoving a finger in his face.  “You let us in there, or I’ll prove that I’m not above zip-tying the police when they’re being fricking  _stupid!_ ”

“I can’t let you—!”

“Oh my God, don’t you people have some kind of ‘leave no man behind’ motto?!”

“Uh, Comet, that’s the military, not the police,” Wasabi corrected, flinching back when the Korean’s glare turned on him.

“Well, they should fricking  _adopt it_ , because this  _asshole—!_ ”

“ _Okay_ , we’re just gonna go now!” Fred jumped in, herding the irate girl away.  The other two (and Baymax) quickly followed, all five ducking behind a nearby building before Fred let go of his hold on Gogo.

“Dammit, Fred, why the hell—?!”

“They weren’t gonna let us in through the front, okay?” he explained quickly.  “We’ll need to find a different way inside if we’re gonna help Hiro.”

The others agreed, but Gogo took another minute or two of glaring before she huffed and nodded.  “What’s your plan?”

**_Time out, let’s stop and think this through, We’ve all got better things to do_ **

It was up to Honey to distract the asshole cop.  It had come down to either her, Baymax, or Wasabi, but they decided that Baymax would not be able to lie effectively and Wasabi is just a  _terrible_  liar that the police, even the asshole cop, would be able to see through in, like, two seconds.

Why they didn’t choose Fred, given his propensity towards being distracting, was because he was the only one, other than Baymax, that could get up to the third level.  Since Baymax would, frankly, probably be too heavy to be held by the burnt and damaged floors, it was decided that Fred would head up and let down a rope or something for Gogo and Wasabi.  Baymax would remain on the ground as their lookout if Honey couldn’t keep the police occupied.

Surprisingly, their plan worked well.  Fred got inside, found something to toss down for them to climb, and they began hunting through the third floor.

“That’s where Baymax and I fell through,” Gogo pointed out as they came across the hole.  “This is where we last saw Hiro.”

“You said he had a fractured ankle?” Wasabi clarified.

“Yeah, Baymax and I got it splinted, though.”

“Still, he probably couldn’t go far on his own.”

_“He was not on his own,”_  Baymax’s voice came through their comms.   _“The bomber showed an immense interest in Hiro and was approaching him when we were separated.”_

“Again?” Wasabi griped.  “Seriously, we  _need_  to add some kinda defense system to his armor!”

“Agreed,” Fred immediately stated.  “Maybe add repulsor beams like on Iron Man’s suits?!”

Everyone rolled their eyes at that, probably even Honey.

“For the last time, Fred, Hiro’s not gonna steal an idea from Iron Man.”

“No, no, he’ll make it  _better!_   Like he did with all of your projects!”

Wasabi and Gogo shared a quick look, the former admitting, “He’s got a point….”

Gogo huffed, reminding both, “Hello?  Lost teen to find?”

The boys quickly got back to work, hunting high and low for their friend.

But no one thought to check the tiny closet door, even as they each passed it in their search.

**_Than talk in circles, run in place, Answers are inches from our face_ **

Hiro couldn’t control his breathing.  He couldn’t hear anything but his pounding heart and failing respiratory system.  He couldn’t think of anything but his impending death by suffocation or smoke inhalation or bad concussion, given how his head was still throbbing from earlier.

And, oh, God, his ankle.  He couldn’t feel it any more, and he had a terrible feeling that that was a bad thing and that if he looked down, it’d be gnarled and twisted and mangled beyond repair and he’d never be able to walk again.

If he even survived.

He was going to die locked in a closet.  A tiny closet.  An itty, bitty, filled-with-unnecessary-amounts-of-cleaning-supplies janitor’s closet that was musty and probably hadn’t been used in  _years_  before this jackass locked him in here.

How’d he even get a key for this stupid closet, anyway?!  Like, really, is someone just handing out skeleton keys to anyone, or just to insane villains-to-be?!  Shouldn’t the police be on this and stopping all this obviously dangerous key-swapping?!  Way to drop the ball, cops.  Hiro’d be talking to Sergeant Gerson about this one, that’s for damn sure.

And, dammit, now his breathing was even worse, hitching in places where previously it had just been wheezy.  Yeah, seems suffocation’s pulling ahead in the race for how he’ll die.

Dammit.  Where was back-up when he needed it?

**_Although we have no obligation to stay alive_ **

“Seriously, you’re starting to become a nuisance,” the very annoyed, very unhelpful officer was groaning to Honey as she continued to blather away.  “I’d hate to have to arrest one of the local vigilante team for obstruction of justice.”

_“Yeah, ‘cause you know they’ll riot,”_  Gogo’s voice grumbled in her ear.

It was  _so_  hard not to laugh.  “I’m sorry, officer,” Honey said instead, “I just was noticing the color of the smoke.  It’s likely that the bomber mixed his own chemical blend for his explosives.  That tint isn’t normal, even in home-made bombs!”

The officer shot a puzzled look at her, brow furrowed.  Maybe he didn’t remember his chemistry lessons?  “…Now, how would you know about what color smoke home-made bombs create?”

Oh.  Nope, he was just trying to find another reason to arrest her.  Whoops.

_“Nice going, Honey.  Maybe next you’ll tell him exactly how often you blow up our school lab, where dozens of unwitting students are at any time of day?”_

Now that was just unfair!  All her explosions were contained to her individual section of the lab, which every student had been informed to avoid unless wearing the proper personal protective equipment!

“Hello?  Gonna answer me any time soon, or will I need to take you in for questioning?”

Oh, right.  “Sorry!” she exclaimed, following up with a slight chuckle.  “I got a bit distracted.  We’ve all looked into home-made weapons after that near-fatal frag attack last month.”

The officer’s lips pursed, but he seemed to accept that.  “Fine.  Still, you’re gonna have to evacuate like the rest of your team.”

_“Can’t yet, Honey,”_  Fred informed,  _“we still haven’t found any sign of Hiro, or the bomber.”_

An explosion shook a building across the way, and both Honey and the police spun towards it.

_“…Sounds like you’ve found one of them.”_

Honey reached up, tapping the fake comm button Hiro’d set up just for cases like this, where they needed to come across as only having partial access to each other rather than constant access.  “Was that by you guys?”  She paused for an appropriate amount of time, then nodded at nothing.  “Right.  I’ll be there in a moment.”  With a bow, she explained to the officer, “Sorry, I’ll need to meet with the others, they’re chasing down the bomber now.  Thanks for listening, though!”

And she took off, knowing the police would be shortly behind her, once they divvied up who would stay and who would go.

Either way, no one was focused on the building her friends were all in.

**_On broken backs we beg for mercy, we will survive_ **

His leg was  _definitely_  destroyed.  There was bone.  He could totally see bone.  Oh, God, he was gonna throw up.  He was gonna vomit in a tiny, non-ventilated room.  He was gonna die in a pile of vomit with a completely wrecked foot.

This was  _not_  how he planned to go out.  Sure, it was something he and his brother had only ever talked about on the anniversary of their parents’ deaths or when nightmares got particularly bad or when they’d had a scary movie marathon.  And maybe he’d had a few too many of those types of thoughts since Tadashi died.  And yes, Baymax was trying his hardest to keep Hiro from going down that particular train of thought lately, but still.  Things happened, the brain makes connections we don’t want it to all the time.

He’d always thought he’d have some big, public, impressive death.  A robotics project gone wrong, maybe, or, before Tadashi died, an explosion, and there was always the chance of an earthquake getting him, or even the BART or trolleys, especially with how he tended to race through the streets without really looking.

But, no, he was hidden away, going out with a whimper instead of a bang.  He wanted a bang, dammit.

Well, no, what he  _really_  wanted was for his damn rescue squad to come find him like they’d done so often in the past.  Really, what was the use of having friends if they didn’t come to help you in your worst, scariest moments?  Tadashi was totally wrong about them.

Okay, no, no he wasn’t, but still, they should’ve found him by now.  Sure, his comm was shot, and his tracker was fried, and he didn’t have Baymax nearby, and Baymax sometimes had trouble scanning through walls or doors, but  _still_.  How hard was it to find one teenager?

Something shook his tiny room.  The roof was starting to cave, dust and debris dropping down on him and starting another coughing fit, but his voice was so shot from his ragged breathing that he could barely hear it himself.

Hiro blinked at that thought.  Oh, God, that was why no one had found him, wasn’t it?  Because he couldn’t call out, and who’d think he’d hide in a tiny closet, they all knew he preferred larger areas.  He lunged forward for the door again, trying to bang against it, but he landed on his bad foot and took a tumble to the ground, whimpering and sniffling in pain, not even able to lift a hand to bang on the door.

He was going to die here alone.

**_Break out!  I won’t be left here, Behind closed doors_ **

“This  _sucks_ , guys,” Gogo grumbled.  She brought a hand up to run through her hair, but merely brushed against her helmet before growling and slamming a fist into a nearby wall.  “This place is coming down, half my suit is probably charred even  _with_  fireproofing, and we still can’t find Hiro  _anywhere!_ ”

_“We’ll find him, G—Comet, we just have to stay positive!”_

“Not in the mood for your optimism right now, Honey,” Gogo snarled back.

Wasabi and Fred glanced over at her, both looking concerned, though for different reasons.  Wasabi was obviously worried about the stability of the building they were in, that the place was gonna come down on top of them (and that’s if the fire didn’t get them first), while Fred was more anxious that Gogo would wreck the place before they found their little leader.

“Maybe we can keep looking some more,” Fred tried, waving around towards the rest of the room.

“Look  _where!?_ ” Gogo spat.  “We’ve checked the whole damn floor!  He’s not here!  Hell, he probably got snatched by the bastard that blew this place up!”

Wasabi shot a nervous look between the two.  “He—He wasn’t, though, right?  I mean, this—this is  _Hiro_.  He’d—He’d figure out a way to get free, right?”

“It’s  _Hiro_ ,” three voices answered him at once, all exasperated.

Sure, their leader was a genius, a certified robotics expert, and likely miles ahead of everyone else as far as academics came, and sure, he had crazy street smarts from his years of working the underground bot fighting scene.  But he was still a kid, and he still got in trouble, and every villain they’ve faced has taken advantage of his small stature and his negligible weight.  He’d been thrown through walls, kidnapped, beaten up, locked up, and nearly killed half a dozen times per week since they first started Big Hero 6.

_“Well, if he was, I’m about to find out,”_  Honey stated through their comms.   _“I’ve almost closed in on the bomber.”_

“Keep us posted, Honey,” Wasabi demanded.  “And good luck!”

“You’re gonna need it against this jackass,” Gogo grumbled.

“If you find Hiro, tell him he’s not allowed to worry us like that again!” Fred added.

_“Will do!”_

Honey’s comm crackled out, she opting for radio silence to avoid being distracted while fighting the villain of the week.

Gogo huffed out a sigh.  “Well, let’s keep looking.  Maybe we really  _did_ miss something.”

“That’s the spirit!” Fred cheered, hopping a bit and punching the air.

And that’s when the tremor hit.

**_Black eyes, broken fingers, Blood drips and I let it run_ **

Hiro was in trouble.  He’d been taught a lot by Baymax over the months since meeting him.  One thing they’d covered was side effects of being in a fire.  Hiro’d gotten curious what would have happened to him if he’d been a bit closer to the showcase fire or if Tadashi had managed to get back out.

Of course there were burns.  First degree, second degree, third degree.  Minor surface burns, like when he accidentally touched the stove when it was on, blistering burns, and charred, through-to-the-bone burns.  If Hiro’d been closer, he’d likely have gotten first, maybe second degree burns.  Hell, it was surprising he hadn’t gotten any from being so close to the explosion.  But Tadashi… Tadashi would likely be covered in burns of all degrees, depending on what he had to face upon entering.  If there were obstacles to get by, like fallen beams or other projects that caught fire, he’d be looking at severe burns on his hands, arms, and legs as he pushed through them.

But sometimes worse than even the burns was the smoke inhalation.  That had all sorts of symptoms and side effects.  Burned lungs and trachea, carbon monoxide poisoning, coughing, fluid in the airway or lungs, not to mention soot or chemical irritants in all sorts of places they shouldn’t get to.  Confusion, fainting, seizures, coma, mental problems, all completely possible.

And he was starting to get incredibly dizzy.  And nauseous.  And a bit confused, though that might be because he really has no clue what’s going on any more.  Debris was still falling on him from the sky— _ceiling_ , dammit,  _ceiling_ , he’s  _inside_ , for crying out loud—and he’d probably gatten a gosh—gotten a gash, man, he was in bad shape.

Hiro groaned, reaching a way-too-heavy-to-be-normal hand up to rub at his head.  It flopped back down a moment later, feeling sticky.  He frowned down at the limb, wishing his stupid night vision would kick in already, it’s been  _forever_ , why haven’t his eyes adjusted to the lack of light?

There was  _something_  on his hand.  Something wet, and sticky, and thick, though rubbing his fingers together smoothed it down thin.  He could  _feel_ the gears trying to turn in his head, but the dots just wouldn’t connect for him.  He should know what this is.

He should be worried, right?

**_Down my lips into my swollen gums_ **

Honey saw the building coming up, and her pace faltered just slightly.  This was it.  The bomber, the one who put all the people of San Fransokyo at risk, the one who may have kidnapped/severely injured Hiro was inside, just waiting for one of them to step through the doors in an attempt to stop him.

For once, her optimism drained away.  This—This was  _serious_.  In their few months of crime fighting, Big Hero 6 had truly only come across one villain that put any of them at risk of dying, and that was their own ex-professor.  They nearly drowned then, saved only by the fact that the man didn’t stick around to verify that they were gone (and Baymax’s huggable design, which doubled as a floatation device).  Since then, the multitude of improvements made on their gear by Hiro allowed them to shrug off the most devastating of blows, dodge around punches and kicks, and generally just be able to avoid severe, life-threatening injury.  Even fires were no match for them, as Hiro had added the world’s best fire-proofing as his first addition.  He didn’t want to lose anyone else to a fire.

How ironic that that was probably how he would die if Gogo’s prediction held any weight.

Honey shook her head, desperate to rid it of that thought.  Sure, Hiro spent ages improving each of their suits, but he relied too much on Baymax to defend him and wound up ignoring his own defenses.  His armor was still barely more than a helmet, chest-plate, gloves, and elbow- and knee-pads.  He’d always put off working on his suit, saying one of the others’ had more pressing issues to address.

In this, he was  _exactly_  like his mother hen of a brother.

Once more, Honey had to break free of her thoughts, taking a deep breath before plunging into the building, letting out a quick prayer that all would be well, for both her and her friends.

**_When hope is non-existent, Our instincts all scream “Run!”_ **

Wasabi and Gogo were beginning to think Hiro wasn’t even alive.  They’d been yelling and searching for what felt like hours but was really closer to half an hour, but they’d not heard a single noise, any kind of sign that Hiro was conscious.  Smoke was billowing around them, and if it weren’t for their helmets (fully equipped with rebreathers and a fresh oxygen supply), they’d likely have succumbed to the smoke by now.

“I give up,” Gogo growled.  “He’d have responded by now if he were here—if he could.”

“We—We can’t just  _give up_ ,” Wasabi argued.  “He’s our  _friend!_ ”

“ _So was Tadashi!_ ”  The world went still for a while before Gogo reiterated, “So was Tadashi, and now—now we’ve failed them both.”

“ _Guys!_ ” Fred yelped from the window, hopping once more.

“ _What?!_ ” the two snarled at him, not in the mood for any of his antics.

“Baymax has an idea so he can scan around up here!”

“… _What?_ ”  This time, the exclamation was in disbelief rather than anger.

_“My scanner has been improved to detect signs of life through doorways,”_ Baymax explained through their comms.   _“If you take my helmet, I can scan the floor without causing a possible collapse from my weight.”_

“Why the hell didn’t you say so sooner?!” Gogo shrieked, Wasabi just barely holding her back from throwing a punch at the robot, or Fred, who’d apparently known this, too, and not told them.

_“Hiro’s last test was less than satisfactory.  I had Fred help me with a couple more tests to ensure it would be useful enough for this.”_

Okay, that was forgivable.  But still….

“Next time, offer a suggestion, regardless of the testings,  _right fricking away!_ ”

_“Noted.”_

The robot tossed up his helmet, and Fred quickly took it towards the first door, hope finally growing in the search team once more.

**_We never turn our backs or even bite our tongues_ **

He couldn’t move.  The walls were too close, it was too dark, too closed-in, too—too  _much_.  He curled in on himself, wincing when he twitched his foot too much and his arms were too heavy to actually pull his knees in close and his head was throbbing with each beat of his heart.

Was this a migraine?  A headache?  Something worse?  Even after half a year of Baymax as a constant companion, he couldn’t pull his thoughts together enough to remember what his prognosis likely was.  That was probably a bad sign.

He wanted Baymax.  He wanted his friends.  He wanted Aunt Cass.

He wanted Tadashi.   _God_ , how he wanted Tadashi.  His brother always knew how to make everything better when Hiro got anxious.  Even though it’d been years since he last had a panic attack (a particularly bad thunderstorm when he was twelve), Tadashi had the tactics so ingrained that he could get Hiro calmed down in an instant.

Hiro needed that now.  He whimpered a bit, struggling to bring his voice above a whisper, even though it tugged and tore at his sore, scratchy throat.  “ _D—Da—Dashi_ …” he moaned, voice craggy and croaky and barely heard even to his own ears.

But Tadashi  _always_  answered him.  Today would be no different.

He was sure of it.

**_Although we have no obligation to stay alive_ **

Honey snuck slowly into the building, looking around for any sign of the bomber or of Hiro.  Walls were crumbling around her, small fires blazing in corners or where some ceiling debris had come down.  She maneuvered further in, dodging the flames, and vaguely hearing a group of policemen come in behind her.

Hopefully they didn’t realize the rest of her team was missing.  That’d probably ruin their ruse.

But her long legs kept her far ahead of them.  She quickly found herself around the corner from the bomber, taking a moment to calm herself and prep a chem ball.  She took a step out from her hiding spot, readying to throw—

“About time one of you ‘heroes’ got here.”

—Only to yelp and wildly miss her target.  The chem ball broke against the far wall, spreading frost across the slightly-burnt drywall.

The bomber chuckled at her.  “Would’ve thought the speedy one’d be the one to come after me, not you.”

Honey’s nose wrinkled at that.  “She’s busy.  What did you do to H—Brains?!”

One of the man’s eyebrows jumped up at her slip.  “His name starts with an H, huh?”

“N—No!”

“Yes, it does, or you wouldn’t’ve started to say something starting with an H.”

“Th—That’s not important!”  She shook her head before glaring at him.  “And to the point, where is he?!”

The man rolled his eyes, crossing his arms.  “Not here, obviously.”

“Thus why I’m asking!”

He sighed.  “If you really wanted to find him, you wouldn’t’ve abandoned that other building to come here.”  He smirked slyly at her.  “Does he really matter that little to you?”

“Wha—?   _No!_   I— _We_  care a lot about him!  Why would—?”  She blinked, eyes narrowing.  “What did you say to him?!”

“Only the truth.”  When she just continued to glare more at him, he huffed and added, “He’s weak, he weighs the rest of you down, and he can’t even save himself from criminals.”

“That’s not true at all!” Honey raged.  “We wouldn’t even have started Big Hero 6 if it weren’t for him!”  Then, she blinked, realizing what he’d said at the end.  “Wait, what do you mean, he can’t save himself?”

“Just that.  He’s  _pathetic_ , y’know?  Too weak to keep up with the rest of you and too much of a burden.  Hell, he can’t even get himself out of a  _closet_ , for crying out loud!”

Honey’s eyes went wide, and she ducked back around the corner, hastily tapping her comm back on.  “ _Guys!_ ” she yelped into it.  “He’s in a closet!”

_“What?”_

“Hi—Brains!  He’s—He’s locked in a closet some—AYY!!!”

_“What the hell was **that** , Honey!?”_

But she was too busy dodging the small grenades the bomber had lobbed at her to answer.

**_On broken backs we beg for mercy, we will survive_ **

“Did either of you understand that?” Gogo demanded of Fred and Wasabi.

The physicist shook his head while the English major grinned, jumping a bit and excitedly waving a hand in the air.  “Oooh, ooh!  She must mean like in  _Zompocalypse 3_ , where the hero’s been locked up and the rest of his team are looking and—”

“I really doubt she was thinking about  _Zompocalypse 3_ , Fred,” Wasabi negated.

“Wait,” Gogo mumbled, “Fred might be on to something.”

“ _Yes!_ ”

“ _Not about the stupid movie!_ ” she hissed at his cheer.  “What if she  _literally_  meant Hiro’s locked  _in a closet?_ ”

The boys blinked for a moment before it sunk in.  Fred’s eyes went wide, and Wasabi got that worried/constipated look on his face.  “But, there’s at least a dozen closets per floor in a building this size, and even more doors that lead to offices!  How do we know which one he’s in?”

“That’s what Baymax’s scanner’s for!” Gogo replied.  “I doubt the bomber carried Hiro to a different floor with his bad ankle.  He’d kick up too much of a fuss at that, and there’s not been any sign of a struggle.  So, he should be on this floor.”

Fred hefted up Baymax’s helmet, excitedly saying, “So we just need to scan all the doors, and we’ll find the room Hiro’s in!”

Of course, in his excitement, he lost his grip on the scanner, and it crashed to the ground, rolling under a desk.

“ _DAMMIT, FRED!_ ”

“Sorry, sorry!”  He scrambled to the floor, shimmying under the desk to snatch up the helmet again.  “See?  All good!”  A spark flew from the helmet, and Fred winced at the twin glares he was receiving.  “Um, mostly good?”

“You’d better  _hope_  that thing still works or so help me, I will  _end_  you,” Gogo snarled.

Fred chuckled nervously.  “C—C’mon, guys, Hiro made this thing!  It’s  _gotta_ be stronger than it loo—”

The helmet broke apart in his hands.  Gogo’s glare darkened.

“…I’m gonna start running now….”

**_Break out!  I won’t be left here, Behind closed doors_ **

Tadashi hadn’t come.  He didn’t come to save him.  All those years, knowing that, no matter what trouble he got into, Tadashi would drop everything to get him out were all a lie.

Tadashi didn’t care.

And now Hiro was gonna die in this tiny, cramped, too-hot place, where he couldn’t move and couldn’t breathe and the walls were towering over him and crumbling in on him at the same time.  His breath caught more often than not, and he was curled as tightly as he could, but his head and toes both still brushed different walls.

He was trapped, he was in pain, he was dying.  And Tadashi wasn’t coming for him.  No one was coming for him.

No one cared.

Not Aunt Cass, not his friends, not Tadashi.

His wheezing hitched again, hiccuping on his tears.  He shook his head slightly, knowing that crying would waste more of his limited air.  But he was panicking, and that made him breathe more heavily, and each time he told himself to just  _calm down_  he’d start wheezing and gasping even more.  It was a vicious cycle.

His eyes were starting to close.  Sure, they’d been blinking this whole time, but the opening had been slowing down, and he was starting to worry that they’d just stay closed and it shouldn’t be so damn hard to open them each time, but his eyelids were just so  _heavy_ ….

_THUD_

His eyelids just barely cracked open at the noise, but his eyes were glazing over, not quite seeing (not that that was new, his night vision never had kicked in).  He groaned slightly, though, feeling the floor shake from whatever had hit the door.  With his current luck, he’d probably just been buried by rubble.  His eyes closed again.

_“—the—ell, F—d?”_

_“Did—ou—ear that?”_

His brow furrowed.  Why was there still noise?  He was buried, he just wanted some quiet so he could sleep and dream he was somewhere wide open, somewhere big and spacious, somewhere  _not this closet_.

_THUD THUD THUD_

_“F—d!  What th—ell’re—oing?”_

He whimpered, the banging outside was making more ceiling rubble fall on him, and he couldn’t lift his arms to shield himself.

_“…Holy—t, I—eard that!”_

_“Help—reak down—door!”_

_THUDTHUDTHUD_

Hiro curled more on himself, his bad foot bumping into the wall, the rubble, his other leg.  Still, the pounding continued.

_THUDTHUDTHU—CRACK!_

“Hiro!”

Wait.  That sounded like….

“Oh, thank God!”

He turned his head, blinking weakly at the sudden light coming from the broken door.  “W—Wha—?” he croaked.

A figure was leaning over him, stretching out a hand.  “C’mon, Hiro, we’re getting you out of here.”

Still confused, still hoping for a brother that wouldn’t come, Hiro reached out for the hand.

**_Although we have no obligation to stay alive_ **

Honey heard all this, of course, over her comm as she tossed chem balls at the bomber, each just barely missing and creating goo or ice on the floor and walls surrounding him.  He was slowly but surely running out of space to move.

“Freeze!”

And of course  _now_  the police catch up.

_“Dammit, he’s barely breathing.”_

_“Call EMTs.”_

Honey bit her lip, wishing she could give her friends some encouragement or be there with them.

“Uh, Heels?” one of the officers asked, suddenly in her face.

She shrieked, chucking another chem ball, which, luckily, missed the officer.

He still winced and held up his hands in surrender, and she could see it was the jerk from earlier.  “Sorry, sorry, just, um, where’s the rest of your team?”

She blinked at him, then gasped and jabbed at her comm.  “W—What’s going on, guys?!”

_“H—Heels?  Oh, thank God,”_  Wasabi answered.   _“We found Brains, but he’s in bad shape.  What happened with the bomber?”_

Honey glanced over to see the man being dragged away, in cuffs, by the police.  “Just got arrested.  You found him?”

_“Yeah, getting him to EMTs now.  He’s probably got some bad smoke inhalation, and his ankle looks awful, but other than that, we’re hopeful.”_

_“Brawns gave a preliminary check that was decent,”_  Gogo added.

“I’ll be over there in a minute.”  She started to rush off, but once more the annoying officer from earlier was in her way.  Honey barely bit back a groan.

He even had the audacity to cross his arms and  _tap his foot_.  “Where do you think  _you’re_  going?”

“Uh, to check on the rest of my team?”

“Not before you give your testimo—”

“ _Matsushita!_ ”

Both hero and officer jumped, spinning to face the elder policeman who’d yelled.

“S—Sergeant Gerson!” both yelped.  The officer, Matsushita, suddenly became fidgety, dropping his crossed arms and instead rubbing at the inside of his left elbow.

Honey knew of Sergeant Gerson, of course.  All of Big Hero 6 did.  He was the only one (outside of Aunt Cass) who’d been read in on their secret.  Fred was against it initially, secret identities and all, but Hiro had quickly overruled him.  After all, this was the man who, after finding out the “crazy kid” was actually  _right_  about a “kabuki man” attacking the city, was first on the scene when Krei Tech was attacked.  They only found out after the fact that Hiro had sent an anonymous tip to Gerson before they left the garage.

Since then, Gerson had been their unofficial “bat signal”, as Fred called it.

Still, the sergeant gave a slight grin to the hero, nodding a greeting.  “Heels.”  After receiving a nod and bright smile in response, he turned to Matsushita with a scowl.  “What’s this I hear of you holding her up from making sure her teammates are safe?”

“I—I just—we need her statement—”

“And you can get it  _after_  she makes sure her friends are okay.”  Gerson glanced over at Honey, giving another smile and shooing her off.  “Let me know if there’s anything you all need.”

She was already rushing off, yelling back over her shoulder, “Will do!”

**_On broken backs we beg for mercy, we will survive_ **

Hiro came to blinking, his eyelids moving sluggishly.  For a moment, he couldn’t remember anything about how he’d gotten here or where he’d been when he fell asleep.

Then, it came flooding back.

Oh God, he’d almost  _died!_   He’d been trapped, and was suffocating, and had rubble falling on him, and there was fire— _oh god not more fire, no, please, Tadashi come back—_

“ _Hiro!_ ”

His breath was hitching and he couldn’t breathe and  _where did Tadashi go, why did he leave me?!_

_“Hiro, wake the hell up!”_

He gasped as he was shoved hard, nearly rolling off the… bed?… that he was on.  Luckily, Baymax caught him, cradling him and gently depositing him back on the… yeah, definitely a bed.

Why was there a bed in the janitor’s closet?

“‘Cause you’re not in the closet any more, nerd, you’re in the hospital.”

Oh.  That… makes a lot more sense, really.

“Hiro appears to be experiencing dissociation from reality.”

“Huh?”

“Ugh.  He’s not all with it yet.  Thus the little rambles.”

He was rambling?  That’s not good, he shouldn’t be doing that.

“No duh, dork.”

He blinked over at the others, wincing a bit at the light until the largest one—Wasabi, that had to be Wasabi—dimmed the lights.  “Thanks,” he mumbled.

Wasabi nodded, sitting back down in one of the chairs.

Hiro finally glanced around, seeing that everyone was there.  “Wh—What happened?”

The other four (Baymax didn’t count, too busy scanning Hiro) shared a look, various levels of nervous and annoyed.  Finally, Gogo huffed.  “Ya got yourself nearly killed, brat.”

He rolled his eyes at her.  “Yeah, kinda got that part.  I meant after?”

There was another quick, silent exchange between the others, then Wasabi took over.  “By the time we finally found you, you were unconscious and barely breathing.  Your ankle’s broken, probably were fumbling around in there and messed it up more.”

“Yeah, I—I think I remember that.”  Then, his eyes widened, and he splurted, “It wasn’t through the skin or anything, right?!”

From their confused expressions, that must’ve been something he hallucinated.  “What?  No, just a normal broken ankle,” Wasabi explained.  “They set it and put it in a cast, so you’re crutch-bound for a month.”

The teen shrugged.  “I’ll deal.”  Then, he smirked.  “Besides, this means Baymax can carry me around without people *coughAuntCasscough* getting on my case!”

The others stared for a moment, then shook their heads.  “Dude,” Fred whined, “you’ve been through a near-death experience, and  _that’s_  all you can say!?”

“Sorry, Fred, I guess I just wasn’t that shook up?”  Hiro gave a slight, sheepish grin.  “I mean, I hallucinated a little, but other than that, I don’t really remember much, y’know?”

“That’s probably a good thing,” Honey murmured.  “You were in pretty bad shape when they got to you.”

“I don’t doubt it.  But I’ll be fine, guys.  You know me.”

He was a liar, he remembered every moment.

**_Break out!  I won’t be left here_ **

It wasn’t until that night, when everyone had gone home and Hiro was left in the room, alone, to recover that they discovered it was effected him a  _lot_  more than he’d let on.

For nearly an hour, Hiro stared, unblinking, up at the ceiling, trying to ignore how dark the room was, how the walls seemed to crowd in at him, how the ceiling seemed to come closer and closer….  He didn’t even realize he’d begun to whimper.

It was ten p.m. when the first screams tore out of his mouth.  Nurses rushed in, trying to calm him down, but he just kept shrieking, shaking his head, curling up into a ball, yelling how the room was  _getting smaller, oh god, no, please don’t leave him here, Tadashi, help, please…._

He was quickly moved to the largest room they had, and the lights were left on.

The next morning, his aunt was informed of the situation and decked out his room at home with glow strips and night lights, drawing back the shoji divider between his and Tadashi’s sides of the room to make the area seem bigger.

For a month, he struggled with falling asleep, staying asleep, nightmares, and small places while hobbling around on his crutches.  Once the cast was off, he was back to his hero work, back to rushing about at campus and through the streets, back to living.

But every time he was in a cramped space, he’d flash back, remembering that moment of doubt before he’d passed out.

Remembering the one time his brother didn’t come when he needed him.

**_Behind closed doors_ **

**Author's Note:**

> …I dunno how these wind up being so damn long. I swear, I started out thinking I’d have to use two lines of lyrics between each break ‘cause there wouldn’t be enough scenes to do the whole song. I wound up cutting a line or two in half. What the heck.
> 
> Anyways, Hiro has claustrophobia. Yeah. That’s kinda a big thing in the chapter story I’m working on. So, I wanted to explain how that came about. Also, this is to kinda show how he’s coming to accept (or not, really) that his brother’s gone.
> 
> …Maybe I’ll be able to write something fluffy now…. Probably not….


End file.
